The Invader on its christening ride in Greenport on Friday. (Credit: Nicole Smith)

People with cell phones and digital cameras in hand eagerly tried to find space at Hanff’s Boatyard in Greenport Friday evening to get a perfect view of the Invader, a new yacht 18 months in the making, as it was christened and launched for the first time.

“It’s amazing and pretty surreal,” said Mike Javidi, one of the five men who built the yacht. (more…)

Artist Ann Sage of Greenport holds a buoy painted by artist Jada Rowland, her ‘buoy bird’ is next to her: the others are by Rich Feidler, John Wissemann and Nancy Wissemann Widrig. (Credit: Barbaraellen Koch)

Their purpose is to mark the location of underwater lobster traps, but later this month, they’ll become creative masterpieces.

The Stirling Historical Society in Greenport recently recruited 20 artists, most of them local, to paint vintage lobster buoys that will be auctioned off during a benefit gala this upcoming Saturday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Hanff’s Boat Yard on the corner of Main and Sterling Streets.

“Greenport is a wonderful town with a great nautical history and the Stirling Historical Society is really the keeper of that history,” said Cindy Pease Roe, a Greenport painter who conceived the idea for the event and is organizing it with Gail Horton, president of the historical society.

Tickets to the gala cost $75 and include a raw bar, local wine and beer, hors d’oeuvres and entertainment by local musician Grant Werner. Each of the 20 buoys, which were purchased from Triangle Sea Sales in Greenport, will have a minimum starting bid of $100. The evening’s proceeds will benefit the historical society’s efforts to install heat, air conditioning and a security system at Berber House, its archives building.

Artists were given free reign to design their buoys, Ms. Roe said. Many feature depictions of the water, boats and mermaids.

She plans to paint the scene from her oil painting “Hanff’s Boat Yard” on the buoy she’s decorating.

“The buoys reflect each artist’s style, but they tie into the area very well and what Greenport is all about,” Ms. Horton said. On her buoy, she’s painting the names of all the boats built at Hanff’s Boat Yard from its inception until today.

“I live in Greenport and work in Greenport,” Ms. Roe said. “I would like to see the historical society raise enough money to improve their facility. Whatever they do really benefits Greenport in the long run — and anything that benefits Greenport, I’m behind.”